Holm Happenings

Aloha, now this is the way to celebrate a birthday.  Yes fifty-three.  I have dumped all of my medicine and am taking this week to reclaim myself…resume my life with confidence. 

We started our week’s long journey by driving ourselves to the airport.  It wasn’t the way we had planned it but it is what happened.  Steve planned to take us to the airport and something came up.  He called his brother Kris who agreed to pick us up at the house at 05:00.  The agreement was that Kris would call us when he got up…We called him at 04:30 – over and over we called him and no answer.  He had worked the night before and Kris is a super hard sleeper…Shelly had mentioned to me that she had been so happy when they had decided to park their car right at the airport.  The bonus is when you get off the plane and get your luggage you can go straight home….lucky day.

The flight went without a hitch. My legs swelled up like two huge water filled pontoons, at least I expected that.  We caught a shuttle that took us to our hotel for $9.00 each.   Heather, they wanted our membership card which I didn’t have.  They gave me the discount anyway and scolded us mildly which was fine by me.  Our hotel was just a few blocks away from a favorite restaurant we had discovered on our trip to Oahu in 1986.  We were both starving so we made our way to the Shorebird – It is an open air restaurant right on the beach of Waikiki, little birdies fly right on the floor hoping you will drop a crumb or two onto the floor despite the card on the table begging you not to feed them.  I ordered my lunch and a Pine colada.  Gary asked when I had taken up drinking in the afternoon….Oh heck!  It was 5:30 at home and I wasn’t planning to eat again for the day.  The fact of the matter is it made me feel a bit loopy and our next stop was Starbucks for a stiff Americano!  After we rested in the hotel for awhile and the sun was down…Gary and strolled the Ave clear down to the Zoo and back.  We found that Starbucks wasn’t just one every block, they were one on every side of any street you were never too inconvenienced for your coffee.  We found the International Market and found a very generous merchant who sold Gary 2 shirts matching pair of trunks a dress for me and a belt for him.  I have never seen him buy like that before but the merchant gave Gary a very special price.  Hey, there was even a Macy’s on the Ave…what a hoot!  We took that walk again in the morning after our I HOP breakfast. 

The bell man at the hotel suggested that we take a Taxi to the ship…gads I figured he had a “cousin” that he would call.. I found a coupon in one of the Oahu This Week for $8.00 each…SCORE!!  

Getting on the ship was just about the same as with our earlier trip to Alaska….We had lunch in the Grand Parisian Restaurant while everyone else went up top to the buffet…We knew better!  It was quiet and nice…just as we finished our meal they announced that our floor was open to guests.  What a shock!  The room was sooooo much smaller than the Holland America  Room.  Less closet space too.  Only one of our bags had made it to the room and I was glad about that I have no idea how I would have adjusted to that.  I emptied the first bag and stowed it under the bed.  When the other two bags showed up I emptied them as well.  There was no room for the large suitcase under the bed so it has to stand in our very small closet. 

At 4:30 everyone was to participate in the emergency lifejacket drill.  I had anticipated everyone to go on deck as we did for Holland America…not so, we were directed to the auditorium.  We sat cheek to cheek in theater seating each of us with our life jackets in our laps.  When they directed everyone had to put on their lifejacket and then sit down.  I became “panicked".  I closed my eyes and really practiced the yoga breathing.  I don’t know if it helped or helped to pass the time.  Soon we were on our way to our room to rest for a short while.  I set a minute timer for 24 min until we needed to go to the next event. 

The next event was an overview of all of the tours that you could take for the next week.  I went to see all of the fun we would miss….Boy the cruise director laid it on thick.  The tours were quite spendy.  I thought maybe we would be able to go on one or two tours.  As we entered the port of Honolulu we were given brochures by two different ladies….the brochures were from Gray line and Roberts… they were 30-50% percent less than what Norwegian Cruise Lines was charging.  So I booked 2 tours.

Tour number one we visited Rainbow falls.  By the way they were fresh out of rainbows that day but it was pretty.  The stop also allowed for a quick stop at a county run gift shop at the falls.  The county rehabilitates residents who need to have a way to make money.  They sold homemade pot holders, pillowcases, Hawaiian recycle bins for your grocery bags.   

We went up the hill to the Mona Loa Nut factory and had a lunch plus the opportunity to buy even more gifts.  And I took some pictures of where they make chocolate covered macadamia nuts mmmmmm good!  We stopped in the National Parks Rain forest and walked thru a lava tube – Our driver was such a hoot.  According to him he was related or “cousins” with just about everyone on the island.  We just drove a little bit and stopped at a lava field (big deal)  a bit further there was the Kilawea Crater and steam vents.  Then on to an observatory.  Next was the Orchid gift shop I was pretty much gift shopped out!  But I was ready to have some real dinner. 

Getting back on the ship was a real hassle.  The line was as long as a football field for crying out loud.  Anything you brought back to the ship had to be inspected and X-rayed. 

Today we went Whale Watching.  Gary was afraid he was going to get sea sick.  We saw lots of hump back whales.  A teen that was just snoozing in the sun.. he flirted with our ship.  A mother and calf, the naturalist thought the baby might have been born today because it still had the nuchal tail….I guess in the tomb oh I mean womb the tail is folded up and it causes a crease on one side…I didn’t notice that but I didn’t have reason to doubt her either.  Between Gary and I we took 450 pictures…when we got back to the room we loaded them onto my computer and looked at them on the computer screen.  That made it sooo easy to discard the bad shots.  On the first time thru we discarded 200 of them.  We will look again tomorrow and see if we can get it under 100….

Tomorrow we are going to find a way to get some laundry done and go to Maui Costco!

Can you believe it! I found the ship’s launderette.  The sign could be covered entirely by my thumb, and it was on the upper left corner of the door.  Early AM we did our laundry.  One dollar for soap (we brought our own) the washer/dryers were free.  How unlike NCL.  

Did I mention, I can now wash my hands in 3 languages.  Who Knew!

I know I told you we were planning to shop yesterday…..Gary wanted to take the free shuttle I wanted the Queen’s mall.  I wanted to pay $5.00 for the Beach, K-mart – Wal-Mart shuttle.  The FREE shuttle did not have air conditioning, and was in the opposite direction of where we wanted to.  We started to walk and found a taxi took that to Costco for $11.00.  I bought Gary a shirt and shorts – we did not find the shoes we wanted.  I checked out the Mai tai stuff was $9.74 for about ½ gallon. I wanted to buy Nuts for gifts but thought better of It I keep thinking about packing all this stuff home…..K-mart was a total waste of time.  We walked to Wal-Mart – it ended up being about 1 ½ miles away, on a very busy Maui street

, oh yeah it was a hot/muggy 80 degree weather.   We bought 2 sleeveless shirts and a long Hawaiian dress for me, a half slip (because I don’t want to frighten my cousins) and a brimmed hat.  We were pooped and called a taxi to take us back to the ship for $9.00.  T*he driver was a very casual and friendly lady she gave Gary a

*dollar folded in the shape of a Hawaiian shirt.  The next time I come to Maui I would like to bring my camera to the wild life sanctuary.  There are some very pretty birds here. 

Once we were back to the ship, we went to a late lunch and took a little nap.  I scheduled myself for a facial my very first.  Gary went to the Ships Library and grumped around in protest of the $100.00 facial.  The facial was more relaxing than I could have imagined.  I nearly fell asleep.  Wow! One hour later I felt like resting and Gary didn’t want to miss the prime rib dinner.  I was still very full from lunch and had a ginger ale.  We went to a mediocre magic show and then to bed  Gary has been very happy to be able to watch all of the fox news he wanted. 

Well we are off for- a wonderful  day on Kona TTFN.

We have Snow too!  It started fairly quickly yesterday afternoon around 3:45  Four inches between then and bedtime.  We woke up around six this morning and the temp was 28 degrees.  It was down to 24 degrees by 08:30.  I fed my birdies and put out extra suet for them.  I put one of those wire coil coffee warmers in the water fountain because it was well on it's way to freezing over. 

 Gary is planning to stay home today and we will work together on our taxes.  Gary got to shovel our walk all 12 or so feet of it.  He walked to the end of our street and saw all of the cars in the ditch and an aid car as well so we will just stay home, drink vintage packets of diet cocoa, do taxes...and watch our happy birds.  Love Deb

Wow!  What a fantastic vacation.  Yesterday, Monday, 2/27/06 the boys asked me to snorkel with them.  You know that I have never done that.  So, down to the dive shop for me to get fitted for a mask and flippers.  Eric drove us all down to Ahihi-Kina’u underwater preserve.  It is a fabulous drive, 20 minutes from our condo with beautiful oceans vistas at every turn of the road.  From the parking lot we had a 5 min hike over lava rocks to the beach.  Gary and Steve helped me put on my mask and flippers.  I panicked a bit fighting the tapes in my head that I had heard since I was a very young girl growing up in Southern California.  Don’t go into the ocean past your knees.  You don’t want to drown do you?  If the undertow doesn’t get you the sharks will!  Then there was the true story of my uncle getting pulled under by some strong current and how my grandfather had counted it lucky to reach down and find him in the surf.  All words of wisdom that still play in my head when I am at the beach, even at my 51 years. 

Steve, got me in the water and made sure that no hair was in my mask (to prevent water leaks once we were in the water.  I was feeling pretty confident with my WOW the fish near my feet were so brilliant & graceful.  I tried to venture out a little further and I didn’t feel confident at all.  Back to the shallow water for me.  Gary Jr came over and he said “that’s OK mom we will stay here until you feel confident”.  In about another 5 minutes he took my hand and encouraged me out in the deeper water.  He squeezed my hand and pointed at all of the wonders of the deep.    Coral was everywhere and hundreds of electric colored fish were peacefully swimming about.  Soon I was on my own.  There was a whole school of fish swimming directly below us.  They all scattered and I couldn’t fight the feeling that maybe we should too.  In my back yard, the birds scatter like that when a hawk is around.  So, I looked to the right and the left and then behind us no shark was around that I could see.  So we stayed for a while longer.  On the way back to the beach I could hear other tapes.  Don’t touch the coral.  Don’t get cut it calls the sharks.  If you get cut let everyone know right away.  After 40 minutes I got cold so I got out to warm myself like a very large lizard on the warm black lava rocks smoothed by the tides at the ocean edge.  Very soon the others got cold and came out of the water as well. 

The next part of the adventure was a trip over an ancient lava flow.  The “trail” looked like the lava rocks you might have seen in your barbeque.  Some bigger and some smaller some loose and others firmly fastened.  Eric and Heather had warned us to wear our tennis shoes and sox for this part of the trip.  I was glad that they did, you could feel the rocks even thru the bottom of your soles.  I had even reached down and tied my shoes a bit tighter because they were feeling loose.  Heather & I found a place to sit and rest a while why the men went further down the trail.  Now, you noticed I didn’t say a nice place to rest….there were not any rocks to sit on that were not sharp.  I took a shirt out of my trusty Harrison bag that housed all the tropical essentials (sunscreen, water, towels and a still and movie camera) and sat not comfortably tho.  Heather and I started back when we saw the men making their way back, so we could take our time over the unstable ground.  We were very close to the beginning of the trail and the trail broke loose from under my feet I slid down a bank of small lava rocks.  Twisted my right ankle and a mild sprain to my right knee, I had mild scrapes “lava rash” ( that is road rash on lava rocks)on the palms of my hands and my left calf.  I was grateful that the bank was only about 10 feet to the beach.  That the rocks were small and that Heather found a way to come check on me.  Thank you Jesus, for finding the perfect place for me to fall.  Heather helped me limp back to the car.  Asked me if I wanted to rest often and I knew that once you are underway don’t stop!  It just hurts all the more when you start again.  The boys were great helping me limp into the condo I showered quickly (to get all the sticky salt water off of me) and then to the couch.  Fortunately, the couch has a back of pillows so one for my feet.  Steve dished out the motrin & a bag of ice.  Gary Sr & Steve drove down to Long’s drug store for rubbing alcohol (1/3 Alcohol 2/3 water and freeze for perfect ice bags), 3 inch Ace wrap& an ankle supporter.  There, a little anti-inflammatory, rest, leg elevation & ice and I felt much better.  This morning I am still a bit sore but I will make it.  We have plans to go to the beach this afternoon.  North of Lahaina, dinner at Moose Magillacudy’s before 6:PM (Early Bird Special).  The kids have left for Flemming Beach and us old folks will be on our way soon…

Don’t tell my mom.  When we got home there was a TV report of a 15 y/o girl getting a shark bite in 1-3 feet of water less than 1 mile from where we had been swimming.  She was just standing in the surf at the waters edge with her boyfriend.  It bumped into the boyfriend and bit the girl.  The girl is sporting a 12 inch gash on her calf.  We won’t be going there again!! More later Deb

Aloha!  Well, we have been here for a whole week now.  Yesterday was a chilly (78 degrees), cloudy, windy day so instead of the beach Heather and I did retail therapy.  We went to Costco (Can you believe it there is a Costco here!) Then to a fabric store Heather picked out a beautiful Hawiian print bark fabric that she will put on her walls in her newly remodled kitchen.  Then we fixed a fantastic dinner of parmesean Chicken, Salad, Pasta...After Clean up Heather and I went to the pool & hot tub.  The rest of the Holm family came over to play cards and visit.  The garbage man came this morning at 0530 so that did it for me...the birdies started singing at 0615 and the pool guys will be here at 0630.  When you look out onto the courtyard you can tell the folks from the Mainland.  They are up dressed and out the door by 0630.  Yesterday, we were treated to a whale performance less than 1/4 mile in fromt of the condo. 

Saturday, we hosted breakfast for the whole family 21 people!  We had Debbie's buttermilk pancakes,topped with Bananas, Macadamia Nuts and Coconut syrup.  Eggs made to order and as many pieces of bacon that you want!  It was great to have them all here! Then the men went down to play shuffel board and the kids went to play tennis all could be observed from our lanai.  It has been wonderful staying here.  I love all the little birdies that hop right up to the doors and hope that you will feed them.  And if you do they will poop all over your lanai...so I will hold off till I am on the beach thank you.

Steve, created a new dessert.  Vanilla ice cream, Macadamia nuts topped with coconut syrup.  MMMMMMMMMMM it is so good!  I can tell I will need to return to the low carb menue soon!  Maybe when I go home!

Kris went home last Thursday, Marcus, Tiffany & Gert left Saturday, Ryan & Heather left last night to begin their honeymoon (alone) Jim Carol and Jewlieann left this morning for the big island.  The kids (Gary & Steve) are carefully measuring out their vacations....Surfing, Snorleling..taking walks on the beach.  Tomorrow, Eric Heather and their boys will go scuba diving.  Gary will go over to watch Dorothy. 

I think that the weather is going to break today and I can work on my tan -  again!  My freckles seem to be growing closer together.  Love you all,  take care.  Deb